He brought in a bag a few minutes later, and she almost started crying again when he dumped it onto the bed. Apples and breads rolled in every direction. She stood to stare at the plethora of foods. Her hand reached out for his arm as she constantly wanted his touch against her to keep her grounded in that space and not miss a single moment. He moved and took her hand, fingers squeezing around her own, and he pulled her into him to kiss her temple once more.
It took her a minute, but finally, she settled onto the bed and he sat across from her. The first thing she went for was the water.
He chuckled under his breath as he watched her gulp it down. “Wait—slow down—” his hands wrapped around hers on the canteen, and he pulled it away before she could choke on it. “Slow down. You’re going to make yourself sick.”
The wash of the cool liquid pouring down her throat and into her stomach caused every muscle in her to awaken. She leaned back against the headboard and closed her eyes, allowing herself to drown in the nourishing abyss. A cool sweat beaded on her forehead, and when she finally opened her gaze again, she was met with Nadir’s softened one upon her.
She willed her breath to even, still recovering from taking the liquid so quickly. He hesitantly handed her back the canteen.
“Slow.”
Her head moved in a nod that she didn’t feel. But she took the canteen back into her hands, this time just sipping. She let the liquid settle in her mouth a moment, memorizing the familiar swish of it around her teeth and on her tongue. The cool crystal of the Umber water—brought down by the barrel from the mountain traders sometimes or simply distilled from the pebbled stream. She relished the difference in it and the rotten water Man had been giving her.
“Are they not feeding you?” he asked.
She swallowed the bread that she'd decided upon as her first food. “Hardly,” she replied. “Usually, it is leftovers from their dinners, if there are any. The Noble has tried bartering scraps of food for information on his generals, but..." She paused, shaking her head at the thought. "I keep feeling as though my body will simply exhaust one afternoon.”
She had to pause at the look he gazed at her with then—the sorrow and break in his eyes… She sighed into the bread she was chewing and shook her head.
“Don’t look at me like that, Nadir,” she whispered.
“Has he touched you?”
The words caught her off guard. Her chewing stopped, but she pushed it from her mind as she looked back down and pulled off another piece of roll. “No. No, he hasn’t touched me.“
"How long have you been here?”
“Five weeks,” she said. “The Noble's wife… she… I think she thinks if she beats me enough that he’ll decide just to kill me instead of presenting me to the Prince. The Noble doesn’t know she’s hurting me. He seems to like showing me off as some sort of forbidden foreign slave girl. An exotic fruit he wants to parade around—”
"Wait," he cut in. "You said he's trying to give you food for information on his own men?"
Nyssa nodded.
A small smile spread on his lips. "You've been here five weeks, and you've already infiltrated their meetings and become a spy for their leader."
"And for us."
"Eyes of Haerland," he teased under his breath, smile widening. He reached for a piece of bread and tore it aggressively in his teeth.
“You’re coming back with me,” he determined, mouth full. "This is too dangerous. If they find out—“
“No, Nadir,” she cut him off.
“Nyssa, I’m not leaving you here.”
“I have a plan.”
His jaw clenched, head tilting slightly as he let the words pour through him. “No, Nys—”
“I’m more use to you here,” she argued. “Finding out information from the inside, I mean.”
“I don’t want you to do that.”
“I can do this,” she insisted. “We need to learn all we can about them. What better way than my being on the inside?”
“Nyssa, they’re torturing you.”
“I’m fine. Besides, it was your suggestion."
